Okay, so mistersandbox gave me this meme, and my reply to it is full of pictures, because who wants to read just me ranting my face off? Also there is art in here somewhere.

The meme: Reply to this meme by yelling 'WORDS!', and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your journal and explain what they mean to you.

( PAINTING, LOLTWILIGHTHATE, FASHION, YELLOW VESPAS, IDK MORE FASHION WITH LIKE GIVENCHY OR WHATEVER )

Who made it through? If you didn't, and you just wanted to read an interesting article that's critical of the fashion industry, jump back in there, and above the last set of photos is a link or two. I think it's interesting enough to stick info about it outside the cut anyway, I promise I'm not just trying to drag you all in...

BOOTY SHOT




AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH WE HAVE A VESPA! I'm in love. SO IN LOVE. Driving home felt amazing, it was so much smoother than the one I rented, which I'm assuming had really had the crap kicked out of it over a number of years. This was taken at the petrol station, where it cost me $4.50 to fill the whole tank. Killer.

Basically, Tachikoma and I bought one of these:



Unfortunately it's too dark and urban around here for me to get any nice photos other than the booty shot I got on the way home from the dealership, but you get the general idea. ♥

Now I just need this jacket I found, which is basically an armored trench coat which is made for scooter riding. Seriously. It's the most amazing thing ever. They also do road-worthy armored HOODIES, which kind of blows my mind. Maybe I need an armoured hoodie instead? Votes?

But anyway, I am so ridiculously excited to go riding tomorrow. But honestly, I'm glad I rented that other one - it gave me such a good idea of my limitations riding right now, so I'm only riding during the day, and I banned myself from riding more today because I didn't get enough sleep last night. Even though it made me so, so sad. SO SAD. I'm still super-cautious, though.

BUT ANYWAYS, YAY! I'm so so happy, I can't wait until I can stick Tachikoma on the back. I have to draw that, just ps.

Okay, so I didn't manage to get a photo essay of the rented Vespa - I realised pretty quickly that a series of near-identical shots titled things like, "Here's my Vespa in front of a cafe!", "Here's my Vespa in front of a wall!", "Here's my Vespa in front of a totally different wall!" would be kind of tedious. Plus you look like a total wanker standing there taking photos of your own scooter when you've just stopped for coffee. But I did get one shot, so here's what I rode all weekend:



It was pretty radcore fun - lithium_michael was basically exactly right when he described it as feeling like "flying, only on the ground, where it's a lot more dangerous." The speeds you do inside a car feel so so much faster when you do them outside of a car, so it's actually reasonably scary at first. That said, it feels amazing and it was so much fun. It was kind of sad to have to give it back, but it's okay because obviously I need to buy a yellow one instead.


Randomly, three things I saw this week:

1. All this does is make me even more curious about what's inside.




2. Filed under "My friends are both insane and awesome and they make 30 second long moving pictures which you should watch": Remember to wish everyone a happy International Free Barrel Day this December 25th!



3. The 1996 black comedy/hilariously bad horror film, Jack Frost, a movie about a deranged serial killer who dies, but comes back as an evil snowman with an assortment of terrible one-liners. "The film gained fame as an Internet meme thanks to its low budget special effects, comical death sequences, poor acting, and the fact that it was released within two years of an unrelated family film of the same name also featuring the concept of a living snowman." AMAZING. SO AMAZING.

Tags: pictures

Okay, I've got to post all this art before it gets so old that I hate it all. I hate how that happens, actually... what's everyone else's art half-life? I can't get tachi to draw me a tattoo for that very reason - he's worried he or I would be unhappy with the art later on, and then he'd be to blame.

Anyway, I've been working on a bandom-themed art prompt post with speep and saint_sorrows. Actually speep has done an absolute tonne of art, and it's all awesome, you can see the whole prompt post here. We're still eagerly awaiting saint sorrows' stuff, which I know will be totally well spiffy.

But here's what I did...under a cut so I don't distort the hell out of everybody's friends' page.




( THERE'S ART UNDER HERE )


Apart from that, I've rented a Vespa for the weekend, so I can a) practice and not lose my skills while I wait for my friend with a Vespa-importing father to hook me up, b) test out if I absolutely really want a Vespa, and c) look like an inner west douche. WIN FOR ALL! I should take some kind of suitably arty photo essay for fun, so I'll keep you all posted.

Also, holidays in two days, I'm beyond excited.

Lastly, I've been playing Phoenix Wright again, and I forgot how much I absolutely adore that game and series. (っ´ω｀)っ

Tags: art

Today I learned to ride a scooter (or hipstercycle, as I'm considering renaming it). I did the pre-learner course you have to take out our way before they'll give you a learner's license (all scooters need motorcycle licenses if you want to ride on the road in Australia). I had the best time, but I'm completely exhausted, which is why I came up with this and thought posting it was a good idea.

Two Reasons Goths Should Ride Scooters:
1. Mine came with a suicide kickstand. The guy said it and I kind of went "What?!", and secretly thought it was awesome because I'm a lamer.
2. It has a killswitch. I was also kind of excited about this. I mean, my journal title hasn't changed since a billion years ago...

Bonus points - get a metal fan on board and make jokes about Killswitch Engage.


And to make this post even vaguely interesting, have an oekaki I did a million years ago. It's been sitting on my desktop staring at me and I don't know why I've never moved it. I hope I haven't posted this before and just forgotten. Hiiiii.

Tags: art

Okay, I've never done this before, so it's kind of for my own records/inspiration/amusement/pretentiousness, but it should be fun anyway.

I present here Arabel's Weird Highlights Of The S/S 2010 Fashion Season Thingamabob.

Which could probably more accurately be rendered as 'totally random stuff I though was cool or crazy or fun, which kind of probably has little editorial value so nobody go quoting me anywhere or anything'. I repeat, MOST OF THIS IS NOT WEARABLE.

Also, please feel free to make fun of whatever you want, or link to weird things to make fun of. Fashion is inherently funny, I think, even when it's amazing. Fine line...


( FASHUN UNDER HERE )

Current Mood: blah

yeah bears* is died and I witnessed it. That sign up there was my souvenir of their last gig, and now I can no longer say my friends are in bands, because they broke this one. Also I seriously thought my days of jumping on top of a stacks on were totally over, but I guess never say never.

Notable quotes:

me: "I got hit by the mosh and I went flying"
ben: looks horrified and claps hands over mouth. "Are you okay? Sorry! I'm so sorry."
me: "It's okay, I came to your gig expecting to get hit by something."
ben: "But you're not used to getting hit by things!"

Also everyone should go look at ben's art, it's great and I'm jealous of it.


*note - they're kind of thrashcore and so you will only like them if you like a lot of high-pitched screaming and guitars. Like, a lot. Not really my scene, but I love my friends and their band was pretty epic fun.

Tags: pictures
Current Music: ringing of ears

So I've been meaning to write more about work, because I used to write so much about it, but not so much of late - I guess I got worried this thing started to overflow with random fashion shenanigans, and I didn't know how interested y'all were in that...?

But I love that today, my art director in all seriousness said, "You can't do that. It would butcher the aesthetic integrity of the piece."

It was beautiful. Serious love.

On the bad side, I really have had almost supernatural bad luck with weather - my photo shoot got dust stormed into oblivion. Then because there's still so much of South Australia spread all over the place, today when we re-shot in the park, I ended up covered in dust up to my knees. But to make up for it, yesterday we had a male model casting, and the fashion girls brought back beautiful gourmet macaroons from their photo shoot. It's kind of a world of extremes... and I'm proud of myself for avoiding Blue Steel jokes, dammit.

Speaking of extremes, I blame aceles for this. She's been doing a series of totally hilarious badfic podcasts called Baby-Punchingly Bad and...

...when she mentioned Preppy Voldemort in high-heels, um...



Yeah. Uh. Sorry guys.

Tags: art

saint_sorrows moved house, and I made her a moving house present, because she is radsauce. Also an 'I love your stories' present... it's of Frank, from her House of Wolves series. Call it a happy Frank. I haven't managed to draw unhappy Frank yet. It's a companion to King Gerard.





Also lol wip, sorry you suddenly got really short in that last one, Frank. Also thank-you Mimi for listening to me whinge about blood drops!

I have to draw some colour stuff soon or my head will probably explode.

In other news, I have a shoot tomorrow and the forecast promises gale force winds. If you see a shoot where everyone's hair is at 90゜to their faces, that was probably me. ALSO Tachikoma and I are completely hooked on True Blood, and now working our way through the second series (we're up to um, episode 4?). I love it so hard. Y'all.

SOOKIE

Tags: art

When I was visiting someone in hospital, I found this poster in the elevator.

Just thought y'all should know. Since it affects you.




It just kind of cracked me up - creepiest public announcement flier I've ever seen, honestly, someone went to town on this.

For those wondering, yes, it's an actual issue to do with the Government subsidising blood donations to private hospitals. But still...for a minute I was like, "Wait, the True Blood viral campaign made it in here too?!"

Tags: pictures